Amish-ism

I was having a chat with my mother the other night. One of the topics of conversation that came up was the sheltered lives of Christians. This conversation came up as I was reflecting on an earlier conversation I had with a friend of mine concerning his girlfriend’s mother. My friend shared with me a story about this one time he, his girlfriend and her mother were walking down the street, engaged in conversation, when they passed this guy who was uttering profanity to himself. My friend and his girlfriend continued their conversation not paying much attention to what they just heard. Her mother, on the other hand, exclaimed “Did you hear what that man just said?!!”. After sharing this story with my mother she shared with me that she could very much relate to this reaction. She explained to me the culture shock she went through several years ago when she reentered the work force after my dad was laid off. She was a phlebotomist at this hospital back in Binghamton, NY. She began to explain to me her shock at the frequent use of profanity, vulgarity and descriptions of the immoral acts her co-workers were involved in. After my mother shared this with me I started wondering about the prevalence of sheltered Christianity in our churches, with our leaders and what this meant, with regards to interacting with the unbelieving world.

Should we really ever be surprised by heathens being, well… heathen? How can a sheltered man teach others how to engage the (heathen) world for the purposes of spreading the good news of Jesus Christ? How many of our teachers followed the pattern of attending Christian schools through college, then seminary and then straight into ministry? Or how many of them are involved in the lives of unsaved folks now? If no servant is better then his master, then why aren’t we engaging the world around us as Jesus did? Both Jesus and Paul were able to adeptly use the culture around them to either start a lesson or preach about the good news of Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 5:9-13: I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.

There is a prevalence of sheltered ignorance, in the church, we use to excuse the responsibility we have to engage the world. This misunderstanding of remaining in, but not of the world. The Amish fell prey to a huge misunderstanding of this scripture many years ago and so now they’re stuck in the 1800’s. As if the 1800’s were the pinnacle of human purity. Are we creating a contemporary “Amish-like” society in our churches now? However, in one interpretation (not being “of the world”), it almost seems as though we ignore scripture.

Colossians 2:20-23 Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

In these verses Paul is writing about Gnostic practices of trying to attain grace from God through human wisdom and actions. I believe the Bible teaches Christ’s love comes from the Father and His love is independent of the objects of His love. Are we trying to please man or are we trying to manipulate God when we act like “good” Christians or good Gnostics or good Pharisees? I think we so much desire to be like God that we secretly want others to worship (like/ highly respect/ adore/ desire) us and be in control of our own destiny. Why do you think satan has any power at all in this world? We gave it to him when we ate the fruit and turned our back on God. The major difference between a good, yet sinful man and an evil one (by human standards) is that the evil man has a firmer grasp on these two desires, willingly turns his back on God and tries to fulfill his sinful desires. A truly godly man has come to this same realization, however, instead of falling into his desires, he gives them over to Jesus Christ and observes, through the unfolding of his life in Christ, how these desires were nailed to a cross a long time ago. This gives him real power and ultimate freedom because he understands that this power doesn’t come from himself, but exists for the sole purpose of glorifying Jesus Christ and His glory is the salvation of mankind.

Do you see the confidence and power which can be drawn upon here? Why are you so afraid to engage the world? Are you afraid they will see you for the insecure wretched sinner you really are? Join the rest of humanity. Is this what keeps you from pouring into other brothers and sisters in Christ, with your own family? Take hold of the freedom in Christ.

Matthew 3:16-17 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

If we are saved then God sees only the blood of His son. For if He saw anything else Jesus would have to die again and Jesus was lying when he said “It is finished”. This is where our freedom comes from. God looks upon Jesus, loves Him and is well pleased. This is our confidence, not the value others place on us. This enables us, as Christians, to say “Yes I am a sinner, however, my sins have been forgiven!”.

Wake up you lazy sleepers! Too many Christians expect everything to be spoon fed to them and too many churches try really hard to accommodate this desire. The church puts far too much importance on 1 to 2 hours every Sunday morning and almost no emphasis on the rest of the week. No more excuses like “those verses no longer apply to us.”, or “Our current culture doesn’t support that. Those verses are just too difficult and ideal in our culture.”

(John 1:1-5) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

Jesus Christ is the Word and the Word is the eternal truth. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. This tells me that all of scripture is God breathed and of eternal significant. If you overlook scripture because it seems too ideal, then I would argue that you’re leaning towards being “of the world”. Don’t allow satan to cloud your judgment through living in a sheltered existence. Don’t believe his lies about the unknown. Don’t allow yourself to become irrelevant. Don’t listen to people who purport that scripture is no more then stories. Jesus Christ isn’t a story, He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings and His word is eternal.

Now is the time for action, to apply our faith in the lives of others and humble ourselves enough to be held accountable, to be the Good Samaritan, to serve our fellow man, to take a real interest in him, instead of focusing so much on ourselves. The church doesn’t need anymore sheltered leaders and laymen who never leave their “Christian” world or feel they are an island unto themselves. Put aside your fears, for they are not of God, but put on the full armor of God. If you’re just not comfortable with engaging the heathen world, then get into prayer and take action. Seek out people who can disciple you in this area. Again don’t just expect it to fall into your lap. Your life is nothing without Jesus and He wants you to be interested in and love others.

Matthew 22:36-40 36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."